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[Wilson Saunders]

I have been having this crazy idea about making a RTS about Strategic Air Command around the WW2 era. Game elements would include:

Buildings for resource gathering, construction, air defense, aircraft maintenance, and research.
Tech tree for better unit types as the war goes on.
Aircraft that fly sorties based on user created way points.
Radar/spotter network for identifying incoming aircraft.
Deployable ground to air defenses.
Fighter aircraft for dogfights.
Bombers for destroying the enemy infrastructure.

I have tried googeling this for this concept and have not found much. I want to make sure this idea has not been done before or done better. Anyway with such general words in the search topic I can't find much information pertaining to games that have tried this before.

So I ask you, the TIGSource community, have heard of a game that has done this before? Was it done well? What could have been done better? Is this game concept not fun?

[Thorst]

I have been thinking about what makes a strategy game fun.  Competition is one part, but you only get competition in multiplayer games.  In a single player game, the player faces off against the game’s creator.  The player has no way to trick or fake-out the creator, because the creator’s moves have all already been made.  So, you cannot make a truly competitive single player game, no matter how fancy the AI is.

Forum member torncanvas posted this link in one of the stickies:
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20070123/chelaru_01.shtml
This article shows that to have competition and strategy, you have to be able to trick your opponent.

I still think that you can make a fun single player game in which the creator presents an attack, full of tricks, on the player.  That is what happens in a crossword puzzle.  Some people would call this a puzzle game though, as opposed to a strategy game.  But this is the first thing a strategy game needs, that is, the creator needs to present a challenge, or puzzle, for the player to solve.

The second thing a strategy game needs is a way for the player to think in advance.  The reason players keep coming back to a game is to finish implementing their plans.  Say for example, I just need three more farms, and then I’ll build a barracks, and then some turrets.

Now, you might say, all I have described is a deduction puzzle.  Well, the third and final thing a strategy game needs to do is give the player freedom.  That does not mean players get to invent their own solutions or strategies for playing the game.  Realistically, I do not think that would be possible given the described limitations to single player games.  I am just talking about the freedom to decide where to put things and when to attack, all while working toward the preset solution to the creator’s puzzle.

OK, WW2 air command.  Check out the old war games here:
http://www.the-underdogs.info/genre.php?id=11
Here is well reviewed tactical sim:
http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?name=Flight+Commander+2

These might all be turn based.  Doing real time with waypoint-defined paths is a great idea, much better than making flying units hover or fly in tight circles after reaching a destination.